In the year 2000, the BBC published a retrospective of the 20th Century highlighting what it considered to be the top three design icons: first was the Coca-Cola contour bottle, second was the VW Bug and third was the Aga cooker. -Aga Website
Not being British, I had never heard of the Aga Range before reading an odd little book called Toast by Nigel Slater. Toast is the story of young Nigel’s life as it related to food-and sex. It is a brilliant book which is funny and curiously familiar. For all the British inside jokes about things like Aga cookers and unknown candy bars-childhood is still childhood.
But the most stunning bit of business was that the Aga stayed on, like all the time. Need to heat something up? Pop in the Aga and open the door a bit. Need to cook in a hurry? No worries, the Aga range is always at the ready. Am I the only that thinks have a hot stove in the kitchen at all times is a bad idea? The Aga is made of cast iron and releases a unique source of gentle, friendly warmth into your kitchen-or so Aga says.
Being more than a bit of an Anglophile myself I have always liked the idea of the Aga, but living in Texas the idea of having a stove on at all times, friendly or otherwise, is pure madness. Still, an Aga is not for the likes of me anyway. The Aga cookers are posh stoves-Martha Stewart must have a couple of Agas in each of her many homes. The fact that they are a bit on the exspensive side only adds to the charm of an Aga.
An Aga cooker is one of those if you have to ask, it cost too much kind of items. A stove for people who only want the best, and may never even use the Aga to cook with. But that would be a bit of a waste, the Aga has a long history of being a great cooker. The Aga is very pretty, well, for a stove anyway.
